Rue And The Prized Possession
by WishingForWords
Summary: Rue has her eye on "The Girl On Fire," aka Katniss Everdeen, and comes up with a plan to get her attention.


Cato was a sturdy, vicious boy with a menacing grin, but he never scared me. Cato was all brawn and no brains. Everyday during training, he would saunter around the training room, staring down other tributes and trying to look tough. His prized possession was his knife, and he would slide the cover over that gleaming beauty and tuck it loosely into his back pocket before going on one of his training room strolls.

I wasn't really sure why, but I have had a very deep rooted fascination with Katniss Everdeen, the girl from district 12 ever since she volunteered to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games. I caught myself watching her train a lot of the time. She would never notice me because I am small enough to stay hidden behind the concrete pillars in the training room.

I had become tired of hiding from Katniss, and I wanted her to notice me. I decided on something rather risky.

…

I watched Cato from my place in the "identifying plant life" station. The corner of his mouth stayed drawn up in a permanent smirk as he plunged his prized knife into the dummies. Eventually, he became tired of the game makers ogling at him so he pulled his knife from the dummy's chest and slid a black cover over it. He then tucked it loosely into his back pocket and began to walk towards the girl from district 1 in the climbing station.

The girl saw him and jumped to the floor to greet him, smiling sheepishly. Cato turned his smirk into a smile and ran his fingers through his perfectly groomed hair once before talking to the girl. He was such a bad flirt. She blushed and stammered, having a hard time finding the words for Cato the great. Now was my chance.

I rose from my place and began to make my way towards Cato and his knife. I made sure I wasn't staring at him, and that I wasn't walking head-on in his direction so that he wouldn't sense that I was pursuing him.

_Just a few more steps to that knife, _I thought. Once I was just an arm's length away from the knife I thanked god for making me small so I could hide myself behind Cato's massive body and carefully slip the knife from his pocket. The smooth black fabric of the knife cover was cool in my hands as I walked away casually with Cato's prized possession. When I reached the wall in the training room, I held the knife between my teeth as I climbed carefully to the ceiling.

When I made it to the top, I rested myself carefully on the pipes and looked down, searching the room for Cato. He had finished his conversation with the girl and was heading back to his favorite training station. 5...4...3…2...1… "Where the hell is my knife?!," he shouted. He turned to the tribute nearest him, and slim boy from district 4, and grabbed his shoulders. "Have you seen my knife?," he snapped. The boy shook his head vigorously and Cato let go of him.

I couldn't help but laugh a little as he stormed around the training room, shouting at other tributes about his knife. Soon I saw Katniss in the crowd, watching Cato as he stomped about like a mad man. I felt eyes on me. I looked down to find that many of the tributes were staring at me in awe, seeing the knife in my hands. They smiled and laughed lightly, not wanting to give me away. I looked back to Katniss. She too was looking at me, a satisfied expression played across her face. I took the knife out of it's case, showed it around briefly, and then picked under my nail with it like Cato sometimes did. Everyone exploded into body-jolting silent laughter. Katniss chuckled and nodded at me. Pride welled up in my chest. I tucked the knife back into its cover and made my way down from the ceiling.

On the ground, some tributes gave me a pat on the back, and Katniss was now full on smiling at me as I set the knife down beside one of the dummies. I skipped back to the plant station and all the other tributes went back to their stations, pretending that nothing happened.

I was still pleased with myself when Cato found his knife again, and another round of shouting began. Maybe I did have a chance in these games.


End file.
